I’ve had the basics of a story (premise, plot, characters, main events) kicking around in my head for a long time and based on some of what I’ve seen published recently I’m beginning to think I might finally utilise my mediocre writing skills to actually write the damn thing…if they can do it then so can I
I was just wondering if the basic premise has been done before. The idea is that one day in the very near future an alien spaceship appears in orbit over earth, the occupants broadcast a message calling for volunteers to return with them. Thats the message, the aliens don’t reveal themselves, they don’t say where they’re from or where they’re going to, why they want to take humans with them or if those they do choose will ever return. They specify that they will only take 343 people (that number is important for reasons revealed later) and that their ship is leaving soon, a matter of days (I’m still trying to work out the mechanics for how the message will be passed and the volunteers can make themselves known for selection and retrieval).
The main body of the story concerns an examination what sort of person would take up an offer like that and what they find once the get out into the universe.
Not exactly what you are talking about, but there’s a comic book series titled “drafted” that deals with aliens “forcing” earthlings to give people to fight against some evil extraterrestrial tyrants.
Although this ends differently from the apparent direction you’re going, the thing that this is most similar to for any long-time science fiction fan is the Damon Knight short story “To Serve Man,” which was turned into an episode of The Twilight Zone:
The basic summary you posted immediatly made me think of the Twilight Zone classic “To Serve Man”. For those who don’t know it, aliens come to Earth (although the do reveal themselves) and ask for volunteers to go back to their home planet. Everyone is excited and wants to go and the ones who get chosen feel very special and privelged. The “head” aliens holds a book titled “To Serve Man”, which everyone assumes (aided by suggestions by the aliens) that it means they want to help man to better himself and the planet. Later, after the ship leaves, the Earth translators find that the book “To Serve Man” is actually a recipe book on how to cook and eat man. (I may have gotten a detail or two wrong because it’s been a long time since I’ve seen it, but you get the idea.)
That’s not to say that that’s what your story is about, that was just what first came to my mind. Your story does sound intriging though, and I’d be interested to hear more. Being a writer myself, however, I can see why you wouldn’t want to post more details… people are always stealing our good ideas!
Why would the aliens be so cryptic about what they were up to? If they had any understanding of humans at all, wouldn’t they know how dubious their offer would sound? Or is that the point?
In the novel Harvest by Robert Charles Wilson, almost the entire damn population of Earth volunteers - but the story concentrates on a handful who don’t…
This is similar to parts of the later Rama novels. Earth decides instead of letting people volunteer to just send a bunch of criminals instead Australia in space! Don’t let that stop you tho, you just need to find a unique focus or perspective on the idea.
As I said above I make no claims to being a great writer (though I have put a few short stories together and people seemed to like them).
The story itself would be an unashamed space-opera along the lines of ‘The Risen Empire’ if on a larger scale with a few plot-twists and (hopefully) original ideas thrown in.
The main theme is the classic question of the pursuit of power and the effects it has on the people who gain it. Lets just say I’m not a fan of the Star Trek ‘Prime Directive’…
My main gripe with this list is that if everyone took it to heart then there would be absolutely ZERO science fiction ever written by anyone.
It doesn’t matter if it’s been done dozens of times before. If you can write entertainingly, which practically no one included in, for example, a Dozois SF Anthology appears capable of doing, then you’re well ahead of the game even if you use or modify an idea that’s been done before.
If you’re worried about your writing skills you could do worse than consider these short summaries on writing collated by Camy Tang and originally developed by the highly respected David Swain.
As for accepting an invitation from aliens, no one but the guileless would be silly enough to accept.
I can’t think of anyone really using that specific idea before but if I read the story then I’d be thinking, “Oh, it’s another how humans react to mysterious aliens story.” That theme has been done a lot any if it’s going to get any attention then you need to make it special in other ways. And if it turned out that the aliens were acting mysterious and pushy and then it was a test then I’d probably throw it across the room in disgust at the end.
Give credit where it’s due – long before this was a Twilight Zone episode, it was a short story by Damon KNight, under the same title. I’ll bet Mr. Knight was pissed that a lot of people thought Rod Serling wrote his story. In his story, by the way, the aliens looked kind of pig-like, sorta like the Star Wars Gammorrean Guards. For the TV show, they put a bald wig on Richard “EEgah”“Jaws” Kiel and gave him a black robe.
The idea of asking folks to come along on a trip was used in the Rama sequels that I’d rather forget about, too.
